There are no rules when in love or war - but what if the war is because of love? Catherine Bush analyzes this idea in The Rules of Engagement, a book about a Toronto woman who runs away to London, England when her two beaus fight a duel for her adoration.

Arcadia Hearne is perfectly happy living by herself in a basement flat in London's Primrose Hill neighborhood, researching full time at the Centre for Contemporary War Studies. After a surprise visit from her sister Lux, Arcadia finds herself dropping off supplies to a Mogadishan emigrant and beginning a love affair with a man whose own involvement with illegal visitors is more complicated than it appears.

In university, two men aimed guns at each other that held one bullet each, for the love of Arcadia. One man was shot, and Arcadia quickly fled the potentially fatal engagement in Toronto, crossing the ocean for distance. Now, ten years later, Arcadia is finally prepared to learn the truth and suffer the consequences as she returns to Toronto to find the men she used to love.

Anticipating disappointment but delivered hope, the reader is then contorted through a chain of events that are almost more heart-wrenching than the gun battle itself. When Arcadia goes back to London with a new perspective, we are left exhilarated with longing and speculation for her future.

The Rules of Engagement shows the most wonderful thing about love: its agility. It can spread out and spring up to fit all the diverse hurdles it must cross or engulf in order to persevere. Occasionally it snaps and divides, turning into a completely new form that can rewrite the rules entirely.

Jessie Davis is a guest contributor to HappyPublishing.com, a site that offers a growing number of spiritual thoughts and a good collection of positive thinking quotes.

Source: www.articlealley.com